Jobs
Explore future opportunities in dementia research and clinical work. Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know about upcoming roles.
Program Manager (80%) Helmut Horten Foundation
Description
The Helmut Horten Foundation (HHF) is seeking a Program Manager to help drive its mission of improving patient care and contributing to medical advancements in Switzerland.
Are you passionate about innovative, impactful solutions for healthcare and believe that philanthropic organizations play an important role in fostering innovation? Catch the opportunity to work closely with a small team in a dynamic, collaborative environment. Join us during an exciting growth phase and play a key role in shaping the future of healthcare and medical research. Together, we will make a lasting impact on health for patients and society.
About the Foundation
Founded in 1971, the Helmut Horten Foundation promotes healthcare through high-impact grants. The Foundation supports groundbreaking medical research and clinical translation projects at top Swiss institutions, particularly in immunology and precision medicine in oncology. Based in Ticino, the foundation operates through initiatives, partnerships and annual calls for proposals. Horten Foudnation is a member of SwissFoundations and proFonds.
Lugano, onsite
Start Date: February 1, 2025
Part-time role: 80% workload
Your Role
As Program Manager, you will manage our Consortium Projects for Clinical Translation and Young Investigator Grants, ensuring these programs align with our strategic goals and deliver positive impact. You will also support the lifecycle management of other grants and contribute to the development of the strategy and of new grant making initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead and coordinate the annual calls for proposals
- Manage the entire grant lifecycle: from application to evaluation, reporting and closure
- Maintain strong relationships with beneficiaries and partners
- Prepare reports and materials for reporting and decision-making
- Monitor trends in medical research and healthcare to guide funding decisions
- Develop impact reports and coordinate evaluation efforts
- Identify opportunities to improve program quality and efficiency
Your Profile
We are looking for someone with:
- Advanced degree (master’s, ideally PhD) in a life sciences or medical field. Expertise in immunology or computational medicine is highly valued
- Several years of experience in project management in research and / or clinical settings
- Experience in grant writing or funding selection processes (in the field of scientific projects)
- Good knowledge of the Swiss academic and healthcare landscape
- Familiarity with the functioning of the philanthropic sector
- Strong analytical skills, with a knack for conveying complex ideas in clear, concise ways
- Excellent communication skills. Fluency in English and at least one (ideally two) other national language(s)
- Proficiency in Office 365 and relevant apps
Team
As part of the head office team of four, you will report directly to Scientific Director Dr. Vanessa Johnen and work closely with the controlling and administrative team as well as the Advisory Board.
PhD Project: Light mediated CDK5 repression and its effects on the circadian clock and Alzheimer's disease
About the Project
The deregulation of brain cells alters brain functions, leading to various neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. This dysregulation can stem from kinases such as cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (CDK5), a serine/threonine protein kinase that governs important cellular processes. Indeed, a pathological increase in CDK5 activity promotes the formation of amyloid plaques, characteristic of Alzheimer's disease. Studies conducted in nursing homes have revealed that high illumination can slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, indicating that light influences the development of Alzheimer's disease. In line with this observation, we found that light downregulates CDK5 activity. Light also affects circadian rhythms, which are disrupted in Alzheimer's disease. Therefore, we hypothesize that light affects CDK5 activity through post-translational modifications (PTMs) and influences not only circadian rhythms but also the development of Alzheimer's disease. Our goal is to elucidate the mechanism by which light regulates CDK5. This will lay the foundation for the development of new drugs against Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Your Mission
You will establish a time course of light dependent inactivation of CDK5, identify light dependent modification sites responsible for CDK5 activity and functionally confirm that the identified sites affect the clock phase delay mechanism. Subsequently, you will functionally investigae the identified sites on AD development and generate the interactomes of CDK5 before and after light treatment.
Your profile
We are looking for highly motivated, team-oriented independent thinkers. The applicant should have a Master Degree in biology, biochemistry, neuroscience or a related subject. Previous experience in protein biochemistry, cell culture, molecular biology as well as good communication skills and proficiency in English are a plus. In general, any previous specific knowledge is less important than strong motivation, enthusiasm for scientific research, problem-solving skills, and possibly a track-record of individual and team accomplishments.
We offer
We offer a stimulating, friendly and interdisciplinary work environment, with excellent working conditions (salary, resources) and frontier research projects. The Department of Biology at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) gathers very dynamic researchers with a strong commitment toward innovation and excellence in science. It offers a stimulating and supportive environment, with an open-minded atmosphere ideal to foster synergies.
The selected candidate will also have the opportunity to interact extensively with members of the Department. In addition, she/he will also benefit from strong international collaborations. The successful PhD candidate will enrol in the Fribourg Graduate School of Medical and Life Sciences (FGLM) providing high-quality education opportunities to complement the laboratory training. In addition, PhD students will have the possibility to apply to postdoctoral fellowships from the SNF after completion of their PhD.
Start date: January 2025 or later.
Funding Notes
The positions is funded for 4 years, with a possible 3 months extension.
Initial gross annual salary will be 47,040 CHF (~ 50,000 $/Euro).
Interdisciplinary Internship Opportunity (paid) suitable for pre-docs, MSc, exchange PhD students or similar
Description:
Are you interested in engaging in an interdiscriplinary research project at the forefront of the life sciences and engineering? Then you are the right person to be involved in the new project “ExtraVolt: modulating extravasation of inflammatory cells across the blood-brain barrier via electric stimulation”, under the joint supervision of Dr. Diego Ulisse Pizzagalli and Prof. Britta Engelhardt at TKI in Bern.
The project is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and aims at exploring the usage of electric pulses to prevent inflammatory cells from entering into the central nervous systems, potentially opening a new approach to control neuroinflammation. By combining a microfluidic “on chip” model of the blood brain barrier (BBB), microscopy methods to capture T cell motility, AI and computer vision based methods for data analysis, the project would allow the candidate to expand skills at the intersection of several disciplines including engineering, biomedicine and informatics.
Key responsibilities
- Isolate and maintain mouse brain microvascular endothelial cells and mouse T cells Conduct in vitro live cell imaging experiments to quantify cell motility
- Analyze imaging data and prepare scientific reports
- Collaborate with other team members
Qualifications
- BSc or MSc (preferred) in a life-science discipline such as biotechnology, biology, etc. interested in the applications of AI, computational methods, and engineering.
- BSc or MSc (preferred) in computational sciences, physics, or engineering, with experience with, or willing to learn handling of cells and advanced microscopy.
- Fluency in English.
Location: Theodor Kocher Institute, University of Bern
Duration: 1 year
Application deadline: December 20th 2024 – 17:00 Zurich time zone.
Expected start: February 2025
Salary determined on the basis of applicant qualification and % of employment.
